Shiny Disastrous Distractions

by Denise Green | Leadership, Management, motivation, Neuroleadership, Science of Leadership, Strengths Comments | 0

 

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In a courageous interview about the near-death of Netflix, CEO Reed Hastings admitted “I messed up” and “got distracted by the shiny object,” spinning off a business instead of “executing on the fundamentals.”

Here are three of my least favorite ‘shiny objects’ when it comes to leading and motivating people:

  1. Reorganizations
  2. Performance management, and
  3. Open-space floor plans

All of these give the illusion of progress. They feed a leader’s need to be seen as worthy of his salary and title. But they don’t work. Worse, all of them create distractions that disrupt productivity, sap morale, and dehumanize employees.

So, what really motivates people to do their best work and feel engaged and inspired by a company and its leaders?

Meaningful work aligned with their strengths, and the brain-space to actually make measurable, significant progress on that work.

A leader’s job then is to provide support and remove distractions. Instead, most leaders and companies create environments riddled with distractions and stressors.

It takes a courageous, confident leader to actually learn, listen, and as Hastings puts it, focus on the core strengths of the business and execute. It takes strength of will to avoid so called “best-practice” trends that have no merit.

Want to know the 5 critical ingredients needed for people to truly feel motivated and to do their best work? Check out my Recipe for Brilliance post inspired by research by Dan Pink, Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer.

And don’t get distracted by the shiny object.

“Nothing jangles a primate like crowding”

Neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett, quoted by David Rock in his article Misunderstanding the Brain is Bad for Business about the downsides of open floor plans.

 

“Don’t even consider recommending a reorganization. Anyone who requires more than one reorg over the life of his or her career will forfeit a year’s income (including bonuses and stock options) and possibly serve jail time.”

~ Fierce Leadership: A Bold Alternative to the Worst “Best” Practices of Business Today by Susan Scott

Your Turn:

If you’ve been a victim of shiny-object-leadership, what coping strategies got you through and kept you sane?

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Why Change Efforts Fail (and How to Change That)

by Denise Green | Adapting to Change, Emotional Intelligence, Management, Optimal Results, Personal Development, Science of Leadership, Uncategorized Comments | 0

 

new year resolutionResolve No More

A few years ago, I gave up the practice of making New Year’s Resolutions, thus giving up the sense of failure and accompanying guilt that rolled around mid-March. Maybe you are one of those people that always keep your resolutions. If so, stop reading. If not, don’t despair: you are entirely normal (unlike those other freaks). [Read more...]

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Gratitude Matters

by Denise Green | Gratitude, Science of Leadership Comments | 0

This week we celebrate a holiday that’s all about gratitude. What would happen if we extended Thanks-giving beyond just 1 out of 365 days a year? No, I’m not talking about stuffing our belly’s and watching American football every day. Rather, what if we carved out time every day–even just one minute–to intentionally give thanks to ourselves and others?

It would be a different, better world.

Flooded in Negative Feedback

In his book Quiet Leadership, David Rock talks about how rare positive feedback becomes after we leave childhood. And that many humans go MONTHS without any affirmation at all! Our own self talk tilts toward the negative so that, the sad truth is people get, on average, a couple of minutes of positive feedback EACH YEAR, versus thousands of hours of negative feedback. And when we do get positive feedback, we’ve conditioned ourselves not to let it in. Even more confounding is that research shows that negative feedback rarely motivates anyone!

So here are my suggestions for shifting this trend in your own life: [Read more...]

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Flex Your Do-Gooder Muscles

by Denise Green | Coaching, Emotional Intelligence, Management, Neuroleadership, Personal Development, Relationship & Trust, Science of Leadership Comments | 4

Dr. Jekyll

Most of us like to think we’re good people and that, if put in an unethical or dangerous situation, we’d do the right, noble thing. We claim assuredly that if given power, we’d wield it fairly; or that we’d call the police if we saw someone getting abused.

Perhaps.

But study after troubling study shows that the majority of us, when put in certain difficult circumstances, would act in ways we’d later be ashamed of. The truth is, while on the fringes of society we can talk about saints and sociopaths, we are all capable of good and evil.

Mr. Hyde

I had the pleasure of listening to Philip Zimbardo at a recent Neuroleadership Conference. Since then, I’ve been thinking a lot about good and evil. While you may not recognize his name, you’re probably familiar with his infamous 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment where normal, healthy people cast as guards became sadistic authoritarians, while those cast as prisoners became hopeless and traumatized. The 2-week simulation experiment was cut short after just 6 days.

People aren’t born heroes. Our brains run on a 100,000-year-old operating that errs on the side of self-protection and suspicion. Scientists literally refer to it as negativity bias. Put in a threatening situation, our brain makes saving ourselves top priority.

While it may not be our default nature to act in others’ best interest, we can retrain ourselves. We can build a heroic brain and become the person we’d like to be — the person we claim to be. And when we act heroically, we improve our home environment, work environment, and communities. In essence, we improve the lives of everyone we touch, including our own.

Here are some essential hero-building steps: [Read more...]

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